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While these debacles featuring the whole ensemble are laugh-out-loud hilarious, the moments in between are deadly silent. The movie never builds up its momentum; something just never clicks, even with all of the noticeable hard work the actors are putting in. But maybe that is the problem itself, it never looks as if the actors are having a terrible amount of fun. Instead, we see comedians trying to pump life into a potentially funny film that just ends up stillborn.

Tim Allen is given the most to do as a “loser dad,” striking up a love affair, trying to be cool for his son, and saving a plane from exploding. Garofalo and Warburton, even though one-note, are enjoyable as they attempt to piece together the madness while causing chaos of their own. Sizemore and Knoxville have some fun quips as the idiot ex-cons, but most of their physical humor misses the mark – surprisingly so for Knoxville, who has made a career out of laughable injuries. And while Deschanel and Foster have enough charm between the two of them to have a movie of their own, here they are unfortunately forced to step aside for the grown-ups.

It is funny how time works. While at the time of release, Allen, Russo, Sizemore, Garofalo, and Warburton were the top stars, the tables have certainly turned. Anyone born in the new millennium would probably say “Russo, who?” Zooey Deschanel ((500) Days of Summer, Yes Man), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, The Mechanic), Jason Lee (My Name is Earl, Alvin & the Chipmunks), and Sofia Vegara (Modern Family – funniest new comedy on TV as a sidenote), the bottom-billed actors on Big Trouble are now the stars of today. It seems like the only person who was famous when and after the movie came out is Martha Stewart, who has an odd yet hilarious running joke throughout the movie and has her face superimposed on a dog, barking “Arugula!” during a hallucinogenic sequence (if the movie couldn’t get crazy enough). While the movie’s leading cast is certainly not with us today, the film’s humor still carries over to be with us (although I wonder how well the Britney Spears jokes will hold up in another decade from now).

Director Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed two of my favorite films – Get Shorty (because I am an Elmore Leonard fan) and The Addams Family – as well as the more popular Men in Black series, does a great job at connecting the characters, completing all of the story lines (even if he cheats by using an infrequent voiceover), and keeping the confusion of who is doing what to a minimum. With a trademark style of heightened reality, this is probably his less out there version of reality, even though it is still only a notch above normal. Maybe this is why the bomb on the plane sequence, even though a touchy subject (after 9/11, it would have been harmless in the cast and crew’s perspective while filming), it is not entirely offensive due to the ridiculous, slapstick nature it is presented in. Sonnenfeld’s lowest-grossing film, all was forgotten a couple of months later with the release of Men in Black II (his second-highest grossing film). Directing the sugary cute family flick RV in 2006, Sonnenfeld jumped onto the TV ship, abandoning film. However, he found little commercial success on TV, none of his series lasting more than 24 episodes, although he was responsible for the critical darling and one of my favorite shows, Pushing Daisies. Now, Sonnenfeld is back to the big screen, shooting in 3D the next installment of the Men in Black series.

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